


The Honorary Marauder

by LittleLucy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Marauders' Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:56:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10703064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleLucy/pseuds/LittleLucy
Summary: Jane Frost was an unusual girl, and not just because an old wizard named Albus Dumbledore had shown up at her door one day and scared the wits out of her mother by claiming Jane was a witch.No, she was just as unusual in the wizarding community as she was in the Muggle world.





	1. And So It Begins

The whispers were flying through the hordes of teenagers in the crowded train. Severus Snape ignored them. He’d become very good at ignoring most things in his life.

Ignoring his father’s fist. Ignoring his mother’s yells. Ignoring the snickers of his classmates. Ignoring his own emotions, like his insipid desire to actually have friends.

He stared stony faced out the window and watched the countryside flying by. He had little patience with the giggles and hushed voices in the other compartments on the Hogwarts Express.

But it was impossible to ignore the voice currently outside his compartment. Severus shifted slightly, turning just enough to see the bright red hair and shining green eyes of Lily Evans. She was with a group of her friends, and was just passing the compartment where Severus sat all alone.

“Do you think it’s true?” one girl asked. “Have they really accepted someone into Hogwarts even though she’s already our age?”

“I don’t know,” Lily replied, “but we’ll find out soon enough.”

“But why wouldn’t she have come when she was eleven, like everyone else?”

“I don’t know, Tara,” Lily said again. She glanced to the side as she walked and noticed Severus. A smile lit her face and she waved.

Severus couldn’t stop the small smile that suddenly graced his own face. But when Lily and her friends disappeared down the hallway his face instantly relaxed into his usual moody expression and he glared out the window again.

Severus didn’t think too much about the rumors of the new girl. Everyone started going to Hogwarts at eleven. How could there be a fifteen year old new girl? Unless she was a transfer from another school. It didn’t really matter, truth be told, so Severus didn’t think on it too much.

 

When the train rolled into the station at Hogsmeade there was the usual bustle and chaos getting off the train and onto the carriages that would take all of them (except the first years) to Hogwarts. Severus didn’t pay too much attention to the people around him or who ended up in the carriage with him. He ignored everyone right up until they were in the Great Hall and the first years were escorted in by Professor McGonagall. At that point, Severus looked up from the Potions book he had been bent over and writing in, and watched the Sorting Hat being placed on one small head after another. He did not cheer with the rest of his table when the Sorting Hat called out “Slytherin!” he simply watched.

After all the whispers and rumors, many students were disappointed not to see an older girl among the first years waiting to be sorted. Perhaps she had only been a rumor after all.

But when the Hufflepuffs entered their common room that evening, they found an unfamiliar face. She was sitting by the window, leaning close to the book in her hand. When the door to the common room opened, she looked up and smiled timidly. All the girls rushed over to find out who she was and why she had been allowed to come to Hogwarts and start a career in magic so much later than everyone else.

“You’re already fifteen?”

“How come you didn’t start at Hogwarts at eleven?”

“Are you from an all Muggle family?”

“Are you a transfer from another wizarding school?”

“Do you have siblings?”

“How long have you known about magic?”

“When did you get sorted?”

“Why weren’t you at the feast?”

She was shy, and wasn’t willing to speak very much as the girls bombarded her with questions, but she was constantly smiling and her eyes never lost their sparkle.

“What’s your name?” someone finally asked.

“Jane Frost.”

“How do you like it here?”

“I like very much. I’m excited to be learning magic.”

The girls all started introducing themselves and saying which year they were in, and Jane expressed joy in meeting all of them but she spoke hardly another word the rest of the evening.

Jane was put in a dorm with Elizabeth Showers, Anne Hawthorne, Lydia Clearwater, and Megan Hudson. They sat on her bed and talked very late into the night and by the time everyone gathered in the Great Hall for breakfast, Jane felt much more comfortable and at home. Although she still didn’t talk much.

 

When she was given her list of classes for her first day, Jane studied it with some trepidation. She was in fifth year classes because that’s where her age group was of course, but this was only her first year at Hogwarts. Jane couldn’t decide which was worse; staying with her own age but not being able to understand anything at all, or being able to keep up by taking classes with the first years. Today, it seemed, she had no choice. So she returned to her dorm and got her books and then made her way through the formidable stone hallways of Hogwarts.

She was definitely lost.

As she rounded a corner she walked straight into someone and fell backwards. Hands reached out to steady her. “Careful there.”

Jane looked at the person she had run into. It was a boy who looked about her own age with curly black hair. He was rather handsome, and he was not alone. Another boy with unruly black hair and glasses grabbed the first boy’s shoulder, “Come on, Sirius, we’re going to be late for class.”

“I’m coming, James. And who wants to be on time for History of Magic anyway?” Sirius waved James off and smiled at Jane.

“You look a bit lost. You must be the new girl, the non-first-year new girl.”

Before Jane could answer, which she was feeling very reluctant to do, Megan appeared.

“There you are! Come on, Potions is down in the dungeons. We have Potions with the Slytherins this term.”

As Megan linked arms with Jane and dragged her off, Sirius waved. “See you around then.”

When they got to Potions class, Megan took Jane to a table where Anne, Lydia, and Elizabeth were sitting. But when the instructor, Professor Slughorn, told them to pair up, Jane found herself without a partner. She looked around the room, in some trepidation. Then she spotted the only other person who didn’t appear to have a partner. He was sitting alone at the very last table at the back of the room. Jane hesitantly gathered her things and moved to sit beside him.

“Um...I don’t have a partner, so would you mind if I join you?”

The boy didn’t answer. He barely glanced at her. He was a Slytherin.

Jane tentatively took the seat beside the silent, stony-faced boy.

The class was soon set upon the task of making a rather difficult potion, which Jane found impossible really, but she was plodding along diligently. Her face was buried in her Potions book most of the class period, and she was also casting hesitant glances toward the boy sitting beside her. His potion seemed to look exactly as it ought to, so Jane tried her best to copy him. They were supposed to be partners after all, even if her partner seemed reluctant to acknowledge her existence.

Jane found the atmosphere in the dungeon classroom rather depressing. The stony-faced boy didn’t help, and neither did the pickled animals floating in jars around the walls. Jane was more than a little uncomfortable.

As soon as class was over Jane moved toward Professor Slughorn.

“Um, Professor, sir?”

“Yes? Ah, Jane. The new girl. Thrust into fifth year and O.W.Ls and not having a clue what you’re about. Do you need something?”

“Would it be possible to do some catching up, when I’m not in class?”

“Ah, of course, of course! I’ll see to it that private lessons are arranged for you for remedial potions.”

“Thank you!”

Every single class that day was torture for Jane, and she asked every instructor for private lessons. Which meant that she had a very, very busy schedule.

The Hufflepuffs met up with the Slytherins again for Herbology the hour before lunch and Jane found herself near the silent boy from Potions. She was with her dorm-mates, however, so she had plenty of help and didn’t have to try and get the stony-faced boy to talk.

After lunch, Jane had Defense Against the Dark Arts. Jane ended up sitting beside a boy with three subtle scars running diagonally down his face.

“It’s Jane, isn’t it?” He asked when she took her seat, smiling kindly.

“Yes.”

“If you have any questions during class, I’m more than willing to answer them.”

“Thanks.”

Jane did have more than a few questions during that class period. She understood very little of what was going on. The boy, Remus Lupin, was kind and quietly answered all her questions.

 

The rest of the week Professor Slughorn had the students paired off again during Potions class, and so Jane had taken to sitting at the back with the silent boy before class began so that she didn’t have to move her things later. The first three days there was no conversation between Jane and the silent boy. Jane always quietly said hello when she sat down, and then the whole class period would pass without either one of them saying another word.

 

On Friday, Jane was struggling yet again. She was looking from her potions book to the ingredients cabinet and back again, a very confused expression on her face. Her classmates were all getting up and moving between the cabinet and their tables with ease. But Jane didn’t move.

Finally, with a great effort, she turned to the silent boy. “Um...could you help me? I’m not sure what this is,” and she pointed to several ingredients in her book.

The boy looked down at the words that her finger was pointing to and smirked. Jane’s heart sank. He wasn’t going to help. She looked around trying to find Megan or Lydia to get help. But then she felt her book being tugged out of her hand. Looking back at the boy she watched him walking away with her book in his hand. He returned to the table laden with various things that Jane had never seen before.

He set them on the table and explained what each ingredient was. He spoke softly, and Jane leaned forward to catch his words. When he had finished, he turned back to his own cauldron and ignored her again.

“Thank you.”

He didn’t respond.

Later, as she struggled to cut her valerian root after boiling it, he reached over and placed his hand on hers, guiding her knife. He tilted it at an angle and began to slice through the the valerian root much more easily than Jane had been.

“Thanks.”

He gave a curt nod, which Jane found more encouraging than his stony silences, so she pressed forward. “I never caught your name.”

“Severus.”

“I’m Jane.”

He nodded again. His black hair fell forward into his face and Jane had the sudden urge to brush it back behind his ear. Her fingers twitched. Turning back to her potion, Jane watched out of the corner of her eyes as Severus began jotting down notes in his book. He had been doing that all week. The book was full of annotations already.

“You should have boiled the root longer,” Severus spoke quietly, so much so than Jane barely heard him.

“I’ll remember that next time.”

Severus did not respond.

 

As her friends were getting prepared for bed that night Jane, as usual, was reading a book. It was _A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration_.

“Don’t you ever rest, Jane?” Megan asked.

“I’m too far behind in all my subjects to rest,” Jane sighed. “I’m never going to catch up.”

“But you’ve been doing all those extra lessons in every class,” Lydia said. “That’s helping, isn’t it?”

“It is helping, but I am still so far behind. I have four years worth of knowledge to catch up on, not to mention this year’s work. I’ll never be ready for O.W.L.s.”

“That isn’t for a while yet, don’t fret over it,” Megan said. “With how hard you’ve worked this first week, you’ll catch up, I’m sure.”

 


	2. Friends or Enemies?

 Jane made her way up to the owlery one night after she’d been at Hogwarts for a month. She had a letter she’d just completed that she wanted to send to her parents.  When she entered the owlery, she picked her way carefully across the pellet strewn floor. Her entrance into the room set the owls to hooting in irritation. Jane looked around for her owl, one that Dumbledore had bought her at Diagon Alley. As she turned in slow circles, examining the rows of owls perched about the room, she felt an owl come and rest on her shoulder. Turning, she saw her long-eared owl, Athena.

“Hi there. Um...could you get this to my parents?” Jane held up the letter. Athena pecked her cheek lightly, affectionately and not enough to hurt, and then stuck out her leg. Jane gently tied the letter to her and Athena took off, circling around the owlery before she flew out one of the many windows. Jane moved to one of the windows, none of which had any glass, to watch her flight. She kind of liked having a pet owl.

When the first Quidditch match arrived, Jane followed the rest of the school down to the pitch in anticipation. She’d never seen Quidditch before. In all honestly, she knew nothing about it. But everyone was very excited, especially Elizabeth since she was on the team, and Jane was interested to see what all the hype was about. As she filed through the stands following Megan and Lydia she noticed Severus sitting alone near the very top of the stands. Not knowing exactly why she did it, she skirted away from her friends and made her way to him. He glanced up as she sat down.

“Hey. Do you mind if I sit here?”

“It is an empty seat,” he replied.

“So it is.” 

Silence fell between them, but soon Jane was asking questions again, trying to understand the game playing out before her. Severus didn’t answer her questions at first.

“If you simply pay attention I’m sure you’ll pick it up,” he said gruffly.

And she did pick it up. “So, those three are suppose to get the big red ball through the goals, right? Because that’s how you score.”

“It’s called a Quaffle.”

“Right. And then those other two are trying to stop people from scoring by batting those other balls around.”

“The Beaters and Bludgers.”

“Okay, but what are those two doing. Just circling around up there.”

“Those are the Seekers. They’re looking for the Snitch. That’s how the game ends, when the Snitch is caught.”

“Is it a smaller ball?”

“Very small, and it flies on it’s own and very fast.”

Severus watched Jane out of the corner of his eye for most of the game. She was curious about everything, but completely clueless. Exactly like she was in Potions. He’d been watching her all week, even outside of class. Surprisingly, she chose to continue sitting with him in Potions, so he was curious about her. She had begun to remind him of Lily. Sweet. Kind. Friendly to everyone. But she was much more timid than Lily had ever been.

Jane watched the Quidditch match intensely, trying to understand everything. It wasn’t too difficult, but it was new and unfamiliar. Jane noticed the black haired boy with glasses, James Potter, on the Gryffindor team. She hadn’t had more than the one interaction with him, on her first day of school, but he was a show-off and a prankster and wasn’t hard to recognize. He’d been drawing attention to himself since day one. He caused trouble on a daily basis in D.A.D.A.

Jane watched Elizabeth zoom by on her broom and whack one of the bludgers across the pitch at one of the Gryffindors. Jane shuddered, but it missed the boy so she could breathe easy again. She knew she ought to be cheering for Hufflepuff right now, but she was more interested in just learning the game. Hufflepuff lost in the end, so it hardly mattered. 

As they made their way back toward the castle after the game, Severus could not help but notice how tired Jane looked. She had dark circles under her eyes and her hair wasn’t quite as pristine as usual (this may have been due to the fact that they had just been outside for several hours, but he doubted it).

“How are you keeping up with your classes?”

Jane jumped slightly when he spoke, evidently surprised that he had even opened his mouth. “Classes are fine.” 

Severus raised an eyebrow, so Jane amended her statement, “Well, I’m still behind in everything. But I’m catching up. I have extra lessons in almost every class now.”

“ _ Almost _ every class?”

“Yes, well, my schedule is busy enough that I can’t fit more in. I do my extra lessons in Transfiguration the hour before breakfast and the hour before that I do extra lessons for Arithmancy. That class is nearly impossible for me! It’s so hard, but it is very interesting. Then of course I have classes all day. During three of my breaks I have extra lessons in Potions, Divination, and Herbology and then in the evenings after dinner I have extra lessons in Muggle Studies and Charms. When I’m not in class or at extra lessons, I’m usually studying.”

Her tired expression suddenly made perfect sense. Severus eyed her with some measure of awe. How she managed to keep up with all of that, he didn’t know.

“I’m still having a great deal of trouble with Defense Against the Dark Arts, but I don’t have time for extra lessons. I do plenty of practicing on my own, of course, whenever I can find the time, and Megan helps me. But she doesn’t understand everything. And I’m so, so far behind,” Jane sighed. “Five years behind really. I definitely think I’m going fail my O.W.L in that.”

There was a brief pause, in which Severus debated within himself, and then, “I could help you, if you like. D.A.D.A is one of my top classes.”

“Oh would you? That would be wonderful! Let me see...It would have to be at night I think, after I do my extra Muggle Studies.”

In the weeks that followed, Severus could see great improvement in Jane’s classes. Well, in Herbology and Potions anyway, since those were the two classes that they shared. She needed less help with each potion and was starting to do her work without her puzzled expression on her face. 

They spent time together every evening just before going up to bed--the amount of time depending on how long her extra Muggle Studies lesson had been-- to work on D.A.D.A. Jane really was woefully inadequate in that area. Despite her improving knowledge and skill in most subjects, however, her appearance continued to decline. Her hair became more fly-away, the rings under her eyes more pronounced. She nearly always wore a harried expression on her face and was definitely stressed.

 

One day, as she pored over several books in the library, jotting down notes on occasion, she heard rather than saw someone take a seat beside her.

“Do you ever sleep, Jane?”

Jane glanced up. It was Sirius Black, a boy she’d only met once, on her first day of school at Hogwarts. But she had seen him around the school a lot since that day, always with the same three boys. He seemed to get in trouble a great deal.

Sirius brushed his black hair out of his eyes and smiled at her. “Well, do you? I’ve been keeping an eye on you, and you are always either in class or in here,” he gestured around the library.

“You’ve been keeping an eye on me?” Jane repeated softly.

“Yeah. I’m not stalking you,” Sirius smiled. “Just curious how someone would handle being brought to Hogwarts in their fifth year instead of their first. It has never been done before. The whole school has been watching you.”

Jane didn’t reply. It was true that wherever she went there were plenty of whispers and pointing fingers. But the Hufflepuffs were used to her presence by now and didn’t bother about her anymore and since that is who she spent most of her time with, she hadn’t really thought about the rest of the school being interested in her for a while. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of everyone being curious about her, following her, watching her.

“You do look exhausted,” Sirius continued, “but you are keeping up. You’ve definitely improved a great deal in D.A.D.A.”

Jane looked up sharply, surprised.

“Didn’t notice we were in the same class, did you?” Sirius laughed. “Well, we are.”

Jane didn’t respond, simply watched him.

“So how do you like it here?”

“It is a very nice place to be. And all my instructors are wonderful.”

“Nah, I wouldn’t say  _ every _ teacher was wonderful. Binns for example,” Sirius rolled his eyes. “But you’re right, this is a great place to be.”

James Potter, black hair as out of control as always, poked his head in the library door. “Hey, Sirius, the Marauders have business. Come on!”

Sirius waved him off lazily. “Can’t it wait?”

“No, it can’t. Come on, you can flirt later.”

Jane flushed.

Sirius winked at her and got up. “See you around, Jane.”

That night, Jane was having immense trouble keeping herself awake while Severus tried to teach her some simple hexes. After about fifteen minutes, Severus put his wand away.

“That’s enough for tonight.”

“But I haven’t got it!”

“And you aren’t going to get it.”

Jane frowned. That statement had stung more than she cared to admit.

“You need to sleep, Jane.”

“No! I can do this. I’ll stay awake.”

Severus smiled, a rare occurrence but one that warmed Jane’s heart. “Jane, you won’t learn anything if you sleep through our lessons.”

“But I’m so far behind still!”

To Severus’ horror, tears had begun to form in Jane’s usually sparkling eyes.

“It’s alright, Jane.”

“No, it isn’t! I’m woefully behind in everything and I’m never going to catch up!” Jane covered her face with her hands. After a moment, Severus reached out and rather awkwardly patted her shoulder. 

“Maybe you should drop a class.”

“No!”

“You have been keeping up very well, and you are improving, Jane, whether you think so or not. But you are going to kill yourself with exhaustion.”

Greatly to his surprise, Jane threw her arms around Severus’ neck and clung to him. “I don’t think I was cut out for this!”

“On the contrary, Jane,” Severus spoke softly, as he often did. Jane found his voice and his slow pattern of speech soothing. “You are a remarkable witch. Not many people could carry the load you have all these weeks. However, you need to be honest with yourself. You can’t carry on like this. Something has to give, Jane, or you really will kill yourself.”

 

The next day, Jane went to see Professor Sprout, head of Hufflepuff house, about dropping classes. In the end, she decided to give up Muggle Studies.

“After all, I know all about Muggles,” Jane told Severus. “I grew up as one. I only wanted to see them from a wizarding point of view is all, and I can do without that.”

Severus nodded. They were sitting together on a stone bench in one of the many hallways of Hogwarts waiting for classes to begin that morning. He wasn’t sure that giving up one class would really take care of the overwhelming pressure Jane was under, but it was a start.

“Oi! Snivelous has a girlfriend!” a voice called out. Severus tensed and reached for his wand.

Coming down the corridor was James Potter. With him were Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and the other boy who was constantly with them, Peter Pettigrew. As they drew closer, Sirius winked at Jane.

“You really ought to keep in better company, Jane,” Sirius said.

“Leave her alone,” Severus spoke through clenched teeth.

“What was that, Snivey? I don’t think I heard you,” James laughed.

Jane pulled the book she was holding up to her chest, wrapping her arms protectively around herself. She didn’t like this conversation. Not at all.

“Come on, Snivelous! Don’t be shy,” James said, when Severus didn’t answer him. Still, Severus remained silent. 

James started to walk on, and his three friends followed. Then without warning he turned around shouting, “Levicorpus!”

To Jane’s horror, Severus suddenly flew upwards off the bench and was hanging upside down over her.

Severus, pointing his wand at James, shouted a hex that Jane didn’t recognize and James flew backwards, green pus oozing from his ears.

“Should have disarmed him before you cursed him,” Remus said quietly. 

Jane was horrified at his nonchalant tone. She only knew Remus from class, but he seemed much kinder than this.

James struggled to his feet. From the air, Severus shouted “Expelliarmus!” and James’ wand flew through the air. Before he could do anything else, however, Sirius shouted the same and Severus’ wand flew out of his hand.

“Enough!” Came a stern voice. They all turned and saw Professor McGonagall making her way down the corridor, eyes flashing, mouth set in a very thin line. “What is the meaning of this, Potter? Snape? Black?” Her flashed menacingly from one student to the next.

Severus landed on the stone floor with a thud.

“I won’t tolerate this behavior from my house,” McGonagall looked pointedly from James to Sirius to Remus to Peter. “And you, Severus,” McGonagall shook her head, “I’ll be letting Professor Slughorn know about your activities in the hallways. You are all well aware that magic in the corridors is not allowed. Not to mention the fact that you should never take sport in hexing and cursing your classmates. That will be fifteen points from each of you for your respective houses!”

“Fifteen points!” Sirius objected. “Professor-”

“I don’t want to hear it, Black. Now get along with you!”

James and his friends wandered off after Professor McGonagall made sure everyone was in possession of their own wands again. Severus got to his feet and marched off in the opposite direction without a word. Jane remained sitting there on that stone bench, horrified.

“You should probably get down to your first class of the day, Miss Frost,” McGonagall said, and then she added more gently, “Don’t mind the boys.”

 

That day in Potions, Jane was unusually quiet. It was true that she didn’t usually talk much anyway, but Severus easily noticed that she was even less talkative than usual. As the weeks had gone by they had begun to be a little more communicative in class and he actually enjoyed her pleasant conversation, though he’d never admit that to anyone. After nearly forty minutes without a word passing between them, he finally spoke up.

“Potter and I have been enemies since our first days at Hogwarts. After five years, such behavior doesn’t surprise me. But I suppose it must have been a shock for you.”

Jane looked up at him quietly, studying him. Severus couldn’t tell what she was thinking and that bothered him. 

“I’m used to being hexed and cursed.”

“You cursed right back,” Jane said softly.

Severus raised his eyebrows. “What did you want me to do? Sit back and take it quietly? That’s never going to happen, Jane.”

“I know James started that mess...but if you’ve been at it for five years, I suppose that means you’ve started it on occasion.”

“Sometimes. Yeah.”

Jane turned back to the potion she was working on, ignoring Severus. After a few minutes, she spoke without looking at him, and so quietly that Severus barely heard her. 

“I didn’t think you were like that.”

“What did you think I was like? Other than you, I have no friends. That should have been a clue, Jane.”

“You aren’t completely friendless. I’ve seen you sometimes in the corridors with Lily Evans.”

Severus smiled. “Alright, yeah. You and Lily. You are a lot like her, you know.”

“I suppose that’s the only reason we’re friends, isn’t it?”

“What? I didn’t say that.”

Once again, to Severus’ horror, Jane was crying. 

“What did I do now?”

“I don’t like those boys. But I’m not sure…”

“You’re not sure you like me either? Jane, is that what you’re thinking?”

“If I did something to upset you, even unintentionally, would you curse me?”

“What?”

“I mean it, Severus! Would you hex or curse me if I upset you? Is that what you’re really like?”

“What do you mean, what I’m really like?”

“You’ve been so kind to me, I didn’t realize you could be so…”

“So what? Potter started it, Jane.”

“But you said he doesn’t always start it.”

“No, but he usually does. And it’s always four on one. I’m not going to take that lightly, Jane.” 

There was a brief pause, in which Jane continued to cry silently, tears slipping into her cauldron and making her potion steam.

“I’d never curse you, Jane. Never.”

Jane finally turned to look at Severus, her eyes shining with her tears. “And you won’t provoke James and the others?”

“I don’t provoke them, Jane. They’re just idiots.”

Jane gasped.

Severus sighed. He had obviously made friends with a very sensitive person. “Alright, I won’t provoke them if I can help it.”

“You won’t curse them for no reason?”

“I never curse them for no reason, Jane. There’s always a solid reason for every curse and hex I aim at Potter and his pathetic friends.”

Jane winced at the word pathetic. Severus rolled his eyes and went on with making his potion.

After a moment, he spoke again. “So...still friends, Jane?”

“Of course we’re still friends. I wouldn’t give up on our friendship over something like this. In fact, there probably isn’t anything that would make me stop being your friend, Severus,” she paused, and then added, “but I do expect better from you.”

“You shouldn’t.” Obviously Jane didn’t know him as well as she thought.

 

That day at lunch Megan demanded to know why Jane spent so much time with Severus. “I don’t like that Snape boy. He’s so moody. Does he even smile?”

“Of course he smiles!”

“When?”

“I’ve never seen him smile,” Lydia added.

“He does smile,” Jane insisted. 

“He’s a creep,” Megan said.

“And he’s way too focused on the Dark Arts if you ask me,” Lydia said.

“You don’t know, Jane, you haven’t been here for the last five years,” Megan added, “all he likes to do is learn the Dark Arts and curse and hex people in the hallways.”

“Especially James Potter and his friends,” Lydia said.

“I think he came to school with half of the known curses already memorized,” Megan added.

“But James and his friends tease Severus, they push him to the point of cursing them,” Jane said.

“Well, they aren’t exactly nice to him I suppose,” Lydia agreed.

“But who could be, really? He’s such a creepy person.” Megan added.

“He’s not creepy!” Jane frowned at her friends.

“Just be careful, Jane. He hasn’t really been a very nice person these last five years.”

“Lily Evans is his friend,” Jane said.

Megan rolled her eyes. “Lily Evans is everyone’s friend. Besides, I saw him make you cry in Potions today.”

“That was nothing,” Jane said softly.

“Uh-huh.” Megan was completely unconvinced.

 

In D.A.D.A after lunch Jane took her seat beside Remus without even looking at him. Unlike Severus, it only took Remus three minutes to speak to her.

“I’m sorry, about this morning. I don’t condone what James and Sirius do to Severus, or vice versa.”

“You didn’t exactly seem perturbed.”

Remus sighed, setting his quill beside his book and turning to face her completely. “I know. I don’t stop them. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that I approve of their actions. James is my friend. Severus is yours. His faults don’t make you end that friendship though. The same is true of James and me.”

Jane nodded. “Okay. I can understand that. What I don’t understand is you just...watching.”

“You just watched,” Remus said softly.

“I was terrified!” 

Remus smiled, and placed his hand over hers. “Fair enough. I’ll try and be more proactive about keeping James in line.”

“What James does is James’ problem,” Jane said. “You aren’t responsible for him. It was you, just standing there, that bothered me.”

“Well maybe next time I’ll step in and play mediator,” Remus wrinkled his nose. “That probably won’t go over well.”

“But you can try.”

“Of course.”

Hearing snickers across the room, Remus glanced in that direction. He turned back to Jane with a grin. “Speaking of James...he and Sirius are making faces at us.”

Jane glanced around Remus to where James and Sirius were sitting, crossing their eyes, wiggling their eyebrows, pursing their lips. They both looked very silly and she couldn’t help but smile.

“They aren’t all bad,” Remus said quietly. “Not any more than Severus or me or you or anyone else.”

 

That night as Jane sat in her bed, propped up on her pillows and reading her History of Magic textbook, Megan and Anne entered the room bearing trays of doughnuts, fritters, and turn-overs.

“Where did you get all that?” Jane asked.

“We raided the kitchen,” Elizabeth said, coming into the room behind Anne with a pitcher of pumpkin juice in one hand and cups in the other.

“Is that allowed?” Jane asked as Anne offered her a doughnut.

“Of course,” Megan laughed. “The house elves love us!”

“House elves?”

“Kitchen staff,” Lydia said, entering the room. “We’ll take you to the kitchen to meet them sometime.”

Lydia snatched three doughnuts off one of the trays and sat down beside Jane. “Still studying, are we?”

“I can’t stop, I have too much to learn.”

“Well eat some doughnuts,” Megan said. “Maybe it will help with brainpower and the like.”

Jane dutifully ate the doughnut that Megan held out to her. She then returned to reading. Megan, Lydia, Anne, and Elizabeth moved off to the far side of the room to talk without disturbing her.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 A few days later, it was Halloween. There was a feast in the Great Hall rather than regular dinner. When Jane entered the hall with Megan, her breath caught in her throat. There were jack-o-lanterns floating in the air, and live bats swooping around people’s heads and up among the flying pumpkins. The tables had pumpkins and cornucopias and maple leaves decorating them. The whole place looked simply magical.

“Oh it’s lovely!” Jane exclaimed.

As the food appeared on their Golden plates from seemingly nowhere, Elizabeth leaned forward conspiratorially and launched into a grand old ghost story. She hadn’t quite reached the climax of her tale when the Fat Friar, Hufflepuff’s resident ghost, settled on the table in front of the girls. 

“That’s nothing. Let me tell you a story.” 

Jane had a bit of trouble sleeping that night after all the scary stories the Fat Friar had told during the feast. His stories hadn’t actually been entirely scary, he had told the most amusing ghost stories he could think of. But Jane was still a bit frightened. Since she couldn't sleep anyway, she went out to the common room and started studying by the light of a single candle. She was still massively behind in every class and if she ever wanted to catch up she needed to make the most of every opportunity. Even if that meant studying by the flickering light of a candle at two in the morning.

  
  


It was a Saturday morning and Jane was sitting on the floor by the fire in the Hufflepuff common room, stacks of books, spare parchment, and several quills spread out around her. She was leaning forward, peering intently at what she had just written.

“Jane, are you coming? It’s time for the Quidditch match!”

“No, you go on without me, Megan.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I have so much to do before Monday!”

“You should take a break now and again, Jane. It might help.”

“If I take a break I’ll never get finished and I won’t be prepared for O.W.L.s.”

“Trying to catch up five years in one is impossible, Jane. You know they’ll make exceptions for you. You don’t have to take your O.W.Ls this year.”

“Yes, I do. I’m going to catch up. Go down to the match, Megan, and don’t worry about me.”

“Okay, if you’re sure.”

“I’m sure.”

When the common room was silent again, Jane bent over her work once more. The words on the page were starting to swim together, but Jane struggled on for another thirty minutes. Her head was starting to ache and Jane eventually threw down her quill in frustration.

“I give up! I’ll just fail.”

Leaving her books where they were, Jane left the common room and began to traverse the empty hallways. After a few minutes her head began to clear. She didn’t really want to give up. She’d been improving in every class and Professor Sprout said she was doing remarkably well for having started so far behind everyone else. If she had to guess, Jane would say she was probably proficient in each class around third year level, although she could do a few things at a higher level than that due to her current classes.

“Are we lost, Jane?”

Jane spun around at the sound of a voice behind her and smiled when she saw the Headmaster, Dumbledore, his blue eyes twinkling behind his half-moon spectacles. He was the one who had found her in her home in Framlingham, Suffolk. She hadn’t shown any signs of magic until last summer and that’s when Dumbledore had appeared on her doorstep. Coming from an all Muggle family, it had been quite the shock. But Dumbledore had explained everything and had taken care of everything too. He got her the books she needed and he took her to Hogwarts himself and did a private sorting with her alone in his office since she was so shy and afraid of the other students to begin with.

“I’m not lost, sir. Just trying to ease my headache before I go back to studying.”

“Not interested in the Quidditch match, then?”

“It isn’t so much that I am not interested as I have so much I still need to do. It isn’t easy being a first year-fifth year student.”

“No, I am sure it is not. I am equally sure you do very well in your classes. Is there anything in particular you need help with?”

“Don’t you usually watch the Quidditch matches, sir?”

“I do enjoy a good Quidditch game, but right now I find something much more pressing has caught my attention,” Dumbledore smiled.

Dumbledore walked with Jane back to her common room and sat with her beside the fire for most of the afternoon, helping her with various homework assignments and listening to her air her frustrations about classes, and about Severus and his constant fights with James Potter and his friends.

“I don’t understand why people are like that.”

“Why they disagree or fight, you mean? Not everyone is as gentle and sweet as you are, Jane.”

“I know, but I don’t like it.”

“I am glad you have befriended Severus. He needs the positive influence. He has Lilly, of course, but otherwise his ‘friends’ are less than savory characters. I have hopes for all of them to succeed at life and be great wizards and witches someday. Yet I do worry sometimes about Severus and his friends.”

“Worry about them? What do you think they’re going to do.”

“Don’t mind me, Jane. Sometimes I let the stress of the war cloud my vision, that is all.”

The war. Sometimes Jane forgot there was a war going on. She had known nothing about it as  Muggle, and she had only recently been introduced to the wizarding world. And here at Hogwarts nothing seemed out of place so it was difficult to remember that there was a dark wizard at large, murdering people and causing general havoc on the world.

“You don’t think he’d follow him do you? The dark wizard?” Jane’s eyes were wide.

“No, child. I have faith that with guidance and enough positive influence none of my students will be Death Eaters. Now, I have business I must attend to. Look after Severus, Jane. I’m counting on you.”

Dumbledore’s words stuck with Jane for a long time after he left. “Look after Severus, Jane. I’m counting you.” 

Jane didn’t believe for one moment that her friend could ever turn into a dark wizard and join the Death Eaters that followed He Who Must Not Be Named (the wizard currently causing havoc on the world). Yet Dumbledore did seem genuinely concerned. And if he was concerned, did he really believe one friendship could keep Severus from that path? Jane didn’t know what to think. But the idea of Severus ever following a dark wizard just didn’t sit right in her mind. He was moody, and an outcast, and had few friends. He was also keenly interested in the Dark Arts, but that didn’t necessarily mean he wanted to run around murdering people or something drastic like that. 

Jane wanted to forget the whole conversation, it bothered her so much. Yet she couldn’t get it out of her head.

She was distracted soon enough, however, by her housemates returning from the Quidditch match.

“It was a good game,” Megan said, moving a stack of Jane’s books to sit beside her. “Slytherin won, but Ravenclaw put up a decent fight.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” Jane replied.

“Did you get your work done?”

“A lot of it. Professor Dumbledore helped.”

“That’s why he wasn’t at the match! I noticed he was missing.”

“I think he came just to help me.”

“Well that was nice of him.”

The room was filling with Hufflepuffs. They were all talking and laughing, mostly discussing the Quidditch Match. Jane watched them all in silence.

“What’s bothering you, Jane? You look sad.”

“Megan, you don’t think any of us will be Death Eaters someday, do you?”

“Jane! What a horrible thing to think! Of course not. Why would you ask that?”

“Just something Dumbledore said, it made me think about it.”

“What did he say?”

“That he’s worried about some of his students. He...he asked me to be a good influence for Severus.”

“Oh no. And I was so hoping you would give up that friendship. He disturbs me. But if Dumbledore asked you to be his friend you’re never going to give him up, are you?”

“I wasn’t going to give up his friendship anyway.”

“Well Severus is definitely someone I could see being a Death Eater. But he is a Slytherin, after all.”

“That’s rude, Megan,” Jane said softly.

“What?”

“Assuming all Slytherins will be Death Eaters.”

“That is the house of darkness, you know.”

“No, it isn’t.”

“Jane, you’re new. You still don’t get it, but that’s where the dark wizards come from.”

“Like Professor Slughorn, I suppose.”

“Professor Slughorn isn’t evil!”

“My point exactly, Megan.”

“Alright, maybe they aren’t all bad. But I still don’t like Severus.”

“You should get to know him before you make that judgement.”

“You’re right, of course. You always are. Yet I still say he gives me the creeps. But Severus aside, is there any homework you still need help with? Let’s get it all done so you can actually have some time to enjoy yourself.”

“Have you written your essay for D.A.D.A.? I only just started it.”

“I haven’t started mine at all. I’ll get my things and we can work on them together until you go to your private Care of Magical Creatures lesson with Kettleburn.”

 


End file.
